Houston, Texas (KTRK) – Within 24 hours of his arrest, the 17-year-old accused of paralyzing a single mother during a robbery began making damning calls from jail.
Joseph Harel, 17, is charged with aggravated robbery after following Nhung Tuyet Truong 23 miles from a bank to Chinatown. During the robbery, police say Harrell threw the victim to the ground, causing her serious injuries.
The theft was caught on clear surveillance video.
All calls made by inmates at the Harris County Jail are recorded. ABC13 obtained copies of many of his jail calls and verified with the Houston Police Officers Union that he was Harrell.
It is unclear who he is talking to on each call.
Previous story: Jailhouse calls reveal 17-year-old’s complaint about paralyzed victim’s GoFundMe page
On March 17th, shortly after midnight, the teen explains to someone on the other end of the line what happened on February 13th.
“Basically, I went with these girls, bro, on some dumb (expletive) and we were snatching handbags,” Harrell is heard saying. “She snatched my purse. Basically, when she snatched my purse, the lady ran in with the money. I grabbed her and beat her to a pulp.”
During one call, Harrell directed someone to look up the case online. The person on the other end came across the surveillance video.
Harrell directed several people to his Instagram account to delete the information.
“Jojo, is that you?” said the person on the other end of the line. “What (expletive)?”
“Brother, chill,” replied Harel.
“Well, look, you see (expletive) I got it, right?” Harrell said minutes later in the same conversation.
The other person answered, “Yes.”
“Go into my life and find that (expletive) and delete all of that (expletive),” said the 17-year-old. “Because the laws took my phone.”
During another phone call, Harrell requested that Instagram messages between him and Zy’Nika Woods, who is also accused in the case, also be deleted.
Four days ago, the teen asked someone to post a picture of his face on his Instagram account with the caption, “I’m innocent and I’ll be on top.”
Harrell can be heard saying he will not accept a 20-year prison sentence for his case, which he said was the maximum sentence for the aggravated robbery charge. Texas law states that the penalty range is from five to 99 years.
“I don’t falter,” Harrell said over the phone. “I’m going to the lead with the watch.”
The victim in the case has it GoFundMe Raised over $300,000. Harrell took issue with that during a call last week.
“Like (expletive), it’s already up to $230,000,” he said. “They say she made $230,000 and will be walking back in a year.”
Harrell’s attorney, Katherine Verlander Evans, told ABC13 by phone that it was “immoral” to release the jail calls to the media. She said she was assigned to the case Wednesday morning and has only access to limited discovery at this point. She said she has no jail calls.
Verlander Evans went on to say that she found it to be a matter of law enforcement selectively releasing information to the media. She said the issue is circulating in the media and is very one-sided at the moment.
Original report: Woman tracked, robbed in Chinatown after large cash withdrawal from miles away: HPD
Co-defendant Woods also confessed to the crime over the recorded jail calls.
He heard her cry on a call to her mother saying, “It’s too much, Mama. You did a bad thing. You did a bad thing.”
When asked what she did, she replies, “We hit somebody, Mama. We beat somebody.”
Woods went on to say that she drove the car and does not understand why she was charged with aggravated theft. It said the body that paralyzed the victim was the “lethal weapon” in the case.
“The paralyzed person has nothing to do with me,” Woods said.
“Well, no,” said the person on the other end of the line, “if you’re an accessory, you’re with him, too.” “If someone comes out here and robs a bank and I’m just in the car and I’m driving, I’m with it too. Because I didn’t have to go with them. Do I get it now?”
Woods replied, “Yes.”
Both Harrell and Woods remain behind bars.
The judge in the case lowered Harrell’s bail on Wednesday from $200,000 to $100,000.
Woods is set at $50,000.
For more information on this story, follow Mycah Hatfield FacebookAnd Twitter And Instagram.
See related: ‘I’m really scared they’re coming after us’: Woman paralyzed after robbery speaks to ABC13
https://abc13.com/joseph-harrell-houston-chinatown-zynika-woods-robbery-victim-paralyzed/13007643/
